(6) Be Sincere and Serious

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, evening class,
16 February 2019, part 6
Translated from Bengali

We are all worshipping Maya in this world. People sing kirtans and do so many things, going this way, that way, to please the public. There have sprung out many bogus movements – aul, baul, kartabhaja, nera, darvesh, saki, sahajiya, sakhibheki, smarta, jata-gosani, atibari, chudadhari, gauranga-nagari. As I told you earlier, when you are possessed by a ghost, you call a doctor, but what happens if the doctor himself is possessed by a ghost? How can such a doctor expel the ghost out of you? You come to a doctor to cure your disease, but if the doctor himself is ill, how will he treat you?

In the same way, if a disciple stands before his guru and cannot speak to his guru straight – if he cannot tell the truth and instead makes things up or manipulates (for example, says different things at the same time), it can never work like this. When a disciple stands before a guru, he must always speak sincerely, openly. There must not be any crookery (গোঁজামিল, gojamil; lit. 'cooking up accounts, balancing up an account by undue insertions'). Srila Prabhupad, Srila Guru Maharaj, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj were like that. We live cooking things up – we say, 'Oh, this has worked, so this will work, too.' No! We must be sincere, and we must listen to what the guru says. Srila Prabhupad says that if you just receive the mantra, it does not make you a disciple – if you cannot follow your guru's disciplining (if you cannot digest your guru's chastisement and mould yourself accordingly), you cannot call yourself a disciple. Only if you serve a bona fide guru and live following a bona fide guru's order, then you can be called a guru. These are Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's words. He said very strong words.

A new book, Guidance 3, is coming out soon. Read it and see what is written in it. I included many examples and quotes of Srila Prabhupad in it. It is written in a little hard language, so it maybe hard to understand it, but you must try to read and understand it. If you read and do not understand it, then read it again and again, try and try, ask questions, then you will be able to understand these things. I collected many quotations and put it all together nicely. Read it. There is also a whole chapter on questions and answers; read it. Also, we have reprinted Nityananda Mahimamrita, you should buy and read it. Get Guidance 3 and read it, too. It is written in a little hard language, but you have many questions in your spiritual life – if you read this book, you will find the answers there. How can you genuinely practise Krishna consciousness? How can you increase your service and devotion to the Lord? How can we develop devotion? This is what we must always think about!

We must practise Krishna consciousness, not Maya consciousness. The religion of this Age of Kali is Narinam-sankirtan. We must always preach Mahaprabhu's message in this world. You know, Srila Prabhupad said, 'I will not leave a cent to you all here. If I leave you money, you will become lazy or fight over that money. Because you see gurudev's temple as an object of your own enjoyment, you will not feel scared to even shed blood for it.' I wrote it at the back of the book. You come to gurudev's temple and think, 'I will enjoy here,' so instead of serving the temple, you want to enjoy at the temple – if such thoughts enter your mind, then how will you practise Krishna consciousness, tell me? You are possessed by a ghost. How will your disease go away? All these things are not necessary. We have not come here to be carpenters and brick-layers. We have come to this world to be postmen delivering Mahaprabhu's message. Mahaprabhu said:

পৃথিবীতে যত আছে নগরাদি গ্রাম ।
সর্ব্বত্র প্রচার হইবে মোর নাম ॥

prthivite yata achhe nagaradi grama
sarvatra prachara haibe mora nama

'My Name will be spread in every town and village of the world.'

This is the message we must deliver at every house – we must go house to house, door to door and tell everybody about it. This is not something that we should only talk about at the temple. No. It does not mean that we must make a temple in every town and village – it means that we must make a temple in each and every living entity's heart. A temple must be in the heart! There must be a temple opened in every soul's heart!

That is why Srila Prabhupad said, 'I will not keep any money for you. Take out a loan – not for your enjoyment but to preach about the Lord; and to pay off that loan, you will have to go house to house and beg alms from people. Then you will not become lazy. If your behaviour is not good, people will swear you when you come to their doors. Householders often think that they are great because if we did not support these sannyasis and brahmacharis who come to beg, they would not manage to survive without our help. Even if people swear you when you come to them, what is it to you? Your patience and tolerance will increase – you will be able to become humbler than a blade of grass, more tolerant than a tree. Your tolerance will increase more and more.' You must remember this. This is what Srila Prabhupad told us. We must always remember these words. We must hear it with our hearts. If you cannot hear it, you will not get anywhere in your life...

There are two things, what is pleasing to you and what is beneficial to you. You must learn to love what is good for you. Do not think that if you hear something that you like, then it is good for you. You must like what is good for you.

Sometimes, we become guru-bhogi (we use our guru) or guru-tyagi (we reject our guru), but we must become guru-sevak (we must serve our guru). We must become bona fide servants. We must live following gurudev's instruction. You are always thinking about your own interest, about material world, but is there time left for all that? A few more days, and your time will be up. You are all old now. How long do you think you will live in this world? You can leave this world at any moment. There is no time! We must aways practise Krishna consciousness.

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